Chapter 895 - 274: As Long as Courage and Passion Endure

Playing against the Lakers, winning seems impossible, but when it’s obvious they want to bully Raheem, winning or losing doesn’t matter—they want to resist!

The way to resist is—when the Lakers make the first move, they’ll retaliate twice as hard! When the Lakers crazily target Raheem, they’ll target Zhang Hao!

Faced with this situation, Zhang Hao decisively gave up scoring and focused on passing.

In terms of passing accuracy and awareness, he was better than Raheem, and his teammates were also stronger, so it didn’t matter.

On defense, he could take the opportunity of playing against the Grizzlies to practice quick baseline movements and adapt to the "Baseline Dominator" defensive skill, trying to integrate it into his defense as soon as possible.

Tonight, it immediately worked!

Raheem wasn’t the type to let himself be bullied. He wanted to take advantage of O’Neal’s absence to attack inside. Compared to early in the season, his techniques for attacking the basket were more stable, and since their team didn’t have clear goals, he didn’t have many goals himself, so he constantly thought about how to exploit the Lakers’ relatively weak inside defense without O’Neal.

Who would have thought Zhang Hao’s close baseline defense was even better now? Raheem was blocked twice by Zhang Hao in the first quarter!

The main reason was Raheem’s strong desire to prove himself; it was obvious he wanted to attack the basket.

Offensively, Zhang Hao faced relentless double-teaming, but he was decisive in receiving passes, which attracted more defense. Relying on his height to pass out, whether directly assisting or passing to a teammate for a second pass, the Lakers’ offensive opportunities improved.

Defensively, Zhang Hao focused on Raheem on the baseline; he didn’t need to worry much about other things. The Grizzlies were one of the two teams averaging less than 90 points per game this season, the other being the Cavaliers, who had the league’s lowest points scored and allowed. But the Grizzlies were far worse, averaging 89.2 points scored and 102.6 points allowed. Even if the Grizzlies scored, the Lakers just needed to score more.

On defense, Barkley, Jason Williams, finally getting more than 15 minutes of playing time, Ben Wallace, George Lynch, the Magician... and others all worked hard to trap Raheem.

On offense, Zhang Hao focused on passing, and others took more shots. Barkley was particularly industrious. In the fourth quarter of the game when O’Neal got injured, he knew he had to put in the effort. In the past two games against the Hawks and the Rockets, he also tried hard but couldn’t win. Tonight, he was fierce!

Wilkins, who just joined the Lakers, witnessed a brutal slaughter, but although he was reluctant, he played hard, scoring 14 points and 4 assists in his debut for the new team, showcasing a spectacular dunk.

Zhang Hao had few shooting opportunities tonight, only shooting 7 times, three of which were on the fast break, but he scored on all of them, hitting 4 out of 7 shots, taking no three-pointers, and making 4 out of 5 free throws, scoring 12 points.

Without shooting opportunities, he focused on defense, rebounding, and passing, recording 15 rebounds, 13 assists, 1 steal, and 6 blocks. Although he had 6 turnovers, sometimes Kenny Anderson, the Magician, and Brian Shaw passed to him too deliberately, resulting in no few turnovers. But it didn’t matter... his career fourth triple-double was secured!

Led by Barkley’s new career high performance for the Lakers with 33 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals, the Lakers slaughtered the Grizzlies by 44 points, 126 to 82!

In fact, after 2 minutes and 11 seconds into the fourth quarter, the Lakers substituted Zhang Hao, Kenny Anderson, Barkley, and the Magician, and they didn’t play again. The point difference was only 35 points then, but Fisher, Doug Christie, Wilkins, Jason Williams, and Ben Wallace played the final less than 10 minutes with a 30-21 run... Wilkins scored 10 of his 14 points and 3 of his 4 assists in the final quarter.

Saying he didn’t have the heart, Wilkins was actually the most efficient in widening the gap...

...

The Lakers’ slaughter of the Grizzlies ended their losing streak, which surprised no one.

After losing two in a row and returning home to face the Grizzlies, even on a back-to-back, the media and fans knew the Lakers would go all out for a win.

Raheem got humiliated again, making only 6 out of 19 shots for 15 points and 3 rebounds, committing 6 turnovers, and getting blocked 4 times—3 times by Zhang Hao and once by Ben Wallace... This too was expected.

But this 44-point gap and Barkley’s 33 points in 26 minutes, with a 13 out of 17 shooting rate and 7 out of 9 free throws... That was unexpected.

The Grizzlies were miserable!

In this situation, first of all, the media found a person to blame for this horror event in Los Angeles—Zhang Hao.

The media and fans didn’t need to think; they immediately concluded it was Zhang Hao who incited his teammates to do it!

Seeing such news, Zhang Hao felt extremely wronged... He only wanted to win by 30 points, but who could have known his teammates were so fired up, or that the new veteran wanted to show off so badly...

Looking at the reward of approximately 30 Bronze Lottery Draw Opportunities equivalent to the Celestial Mandate... Zhang Hao felt a bit wronged, but it wasn’t a big deal... it was all for storing some capital for the playoffs.

...

...

With the first four months of the season over, the Lakers played 57 games, with a record of 45 wins and 12 losses.

This record’s quite good; after the All-Star weekend, they won 7 out of 9 games, currently still leading the Utah Jazz with a 45-13 record by half a game, occupying the top spot in the West.

Although it’s unclear how long they can keep it, for now, Lakers fans stay optimistic.